D&D Sep-2-2003

[ralphmelton]

I felt underprepared for the game as usual, but the session worked out very well IMHO. It had no combat, but lots and lots of roleplaying and exposition.

Some of the implications of high-level D&D are very challenging for me--particularly the fact that with scrying, they can now talk with anyone they want to at any time, and with teleport, they can go anywhere they want. It's just as well that we've finished the big 'discovery' campaign arc.¹. And I was sort of done with wandering monsters anyway.

I had the fun of seeing the players connecting up a detail I had planned way back in early 2002. I guess I wasn't completely unprepared :-) .

Really, this session has restored a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the game for me.

Some questions for me to think about:
1) If the PCs teleport straight into the heart of Cardior, how can I give them opportunities to find out what's really going on in the War for Cardior?
2) If they enter the Emperor's chambers, what's to prevent them from looting the place bare? (Or merely getting a lot more treasure than I want them to have just yet.)
3) I've noticed one inconsistency I've allowed to slip in. How to reconcile that before it's visible to the players?

¹There's still some discovery to be had, certainly, but the players can at least see most of the puzzle pieces now.

Comments

High-level AD&D is an arms race

[skington.livejournal.com]

What makes it certain that the PCs can teleport anywhere? If they're at a level where they can teleport, then unless they overwhelmingly overpower their opponents, their opponents also have access to teleport magics, and, potentially, magics that can block teleportation. Maybe they can't teleport directly into Cardior, and have to find out why? (Maybe a country-wide ritual is causing this teleport block.)

As for looting the Emperor's chambers, again, you could use teleportation: if thieves start stripping the place bare, then magical wards trigger automatic teleportation of valuable stuff to somewhere else entirely, and trigger alarms. There's got to be a way of making them run out of spells, especially if a whole bunch of magically-enchanted bad guys teleport in as soon as the alarm is triggered.

Inconsistencies can be retconned or forgotten about. I can't say more because for all I know your players might be reading this.

[cellio]

1) If the PCs teleport straight into the heart of Cardior, how can I give them opportunities to find out what's really going on in the War for Cardior?

Maybe the teleport bounces. (You should have a reason for that -- i.e. someone wanted to shield that location from teleport.)

Maybe any teleport sets off an alarm that summons lots of guards (which also solves your looting problem).

Maybe inspecting this particular location doesn't convey any more information than has already been seen via scry, and the characters are going to have to seek out other information sources.

You will, I presume, decide in advance how to resolve that teleport, rather than relying on a roll of the dice at the game. It's perfectly ok to let the story override randomness, after all.

2) If they enter the Emperor's chambers, what's to prevent them from looting the place bare?

The above-mentioned alarm. An overwhelming magical sense of "this belongs here" coming from the items. Items keyed to certain users, sort of like how holy swords can't be used by evil characters. Knowledge that theft is still theft and this is, after all, royal property, not stuff found in the lair of some ogres who attacked the characters.

(This last is a challenge in the meta-game. You have at least one, probably two, LG characters who won't go along with theft, but you've also got at least one character who will see nothing wrong with it. The resulting argument could derail a game session, which wouldn't be fun for anyone.)